This year’s International Wine, Beer & Food Festival was held Thursday, November 19th through Saturday, November 21st and was located at the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids. This year featured over 1,500 varieties of beers and wines, as well as ciders, meads, and spirits. Over the past couple years, beer has played a more prominent role in the festival and with this year’s fest, the new “Beer City Station” shared main stage with the wine on the main floor which was expanded to double the size of prior year events to accommodate more options.

2014 marked the 7th year of the International Wine, Beer, and Food Festival with beer having just gained prominence in the festival over the last couple of years. Last year introduced the brewer’s loft on the 3rd level of the DeVos Place with long lines at the escalator to gain admittance and this year that trend continued with attendees seeking to try the over 200 beers available at this year’s fest. Some of the highlights for me this year include the draft selections from Cranker’s and the Bourbon Barrel Aged Shipwreck Porter from Arcadia. This year also featured another bonus: draft beer selections on the main level as well with Pike 51 Brewing and Jaden James (Peanut Butter Porter!) sharing joint booths with their respective Hudsonville and Cascade wineries.

It was a banner year for attendance at the Grand Rapids International Wine, Beer & Food Festival which was held November 20-22 at DeVos Place. According to Festival organizers, attendance was up nearly 10% meaning more than 18,500 individuals gathered at the largest wine and food festival in the Midwest.